 In 1986, a child was born. He was a boy. His parents are of African origin. His life took a dramatic turn for the worse when he started falling sick almost every two weeks. He suffered pain from sickle cell anemia and to make matters worse, his poor parents were illiterates who couldn't afford to take him to a good hospital to know exactly what was wrong with him. Born into extreme poverty in a remote village that seemed to be outside the planet Earth with terrible rheumatism, this boy had no hope of ever raising his head in life. However, when he was around 17 he started reading books and some of these books contained stories and biographies of individuals who had gone through terrible situations and despite that achieved greatness in life. The boy had a glimmer of hope. He believed that if certain people had been through similar situations like his and overcome all obstacles, he too could do it. That boy is me. I started life pretty rough and I never knew I could survive my childhood but by the grace of God I did survive and not just survive I thrived. I fought and won the battle against poverty, sickness and mediocrity. One of the instruments God used in helping me overcome obstacles was through reading biographies. Biographies are the best books you can read because it's the stories of people. It contains their pains, problems, obstacles and how they overcame them. I bought five books in the last one month and four of them are biographies. This tells you something. In today's video I'm going to be sharing with you nine biographies every entrepreneur should read. If you're new here consider subscribing so you won't miss other interesting videos like this. Number one, biography of Henry Ford. Most people know his name. He was the guy who revolutionized the automobile industry. A billionaire and one of the richest people in the world. Well there are quite a number of other things most people don't know about Henry Ford. Studying his biography I was amazed by how crazy this man was. When Ford started his company there were hundreds of automobile companies in America. Still by the end of 1920 his company had become one of the most successful auto companies in the world. It wasn't easy for him. He worked like hell and failed like a stupid man. He raised capital and burnt it. He was rejected again and again but he's of a determined spirit. Ford kept on looking for how to build a better business system. How to make his products better and cheaper. He would buy the cars from his competitors and drive them. Take them to his factory and figure out what they were doing better than him. He would look for raw materials where no one was looking. Ford is a great motivation for anyone who wants to build something worthwhile. Number two, biography of Thomas Edison. Some people do not like Thomas Edison because they think he was dubious, a cheat and evil. That may be right to some extent but that is not my concern. As someone who wants to achieve greatness in life, your goal should be to learn what is good from those who have achieved greatness. I tell you honestly, almost everyone who has ever achieved success has some dirty side. This is because they are human. Take for instance, you may like Steve Jobs because he was one of the greatest entrepreneurs in this era but if you dig deep, you'll find that Steve Jobs didn't treat people well. He was a tyrant. Yet you should learn what is good about him and ignore the bad side. What impressed me about Thomas Edison is the fact that he wasn't just an inventor. He was an entrepreneur. While many inventors in his days focused on just inventing stuff, Thomas focused on inventing things that had commercial value. Why should we create things if we can't make money off it? That is how entrepreneurs think. It's a win-win game. Think about it, if your labor doesn't give you a lot of money, you will not be able to hire more people and so you won't be able to serve the world the way you should. When it comes to business, serving the world must bring us money or we won't be able to scale or last in the market. Biography of Benjamin Franklin Franklin was a curious, self-taught young man. What inspired me most about his life was how he left his family at a young age just to go and figure out life. Franklin was a printing press entrepreneur, a scientist, an inventor and a writer. Some people believe that he's the most versatile genius America ever produced. Biography of Winston Churchill Yes, Churchill was not an entrepreneur, but I'll advise every entrepreneur to study this man because of his courage. Churchill was so courageous that as leader of an army, he would go to the war front to fight, even though he was not expected to do so. What I learned from Churchill is courage and everyone who ever dreamed of starting and running a successful business has a lot of courage. Everyone knows his name, but that is not enough. If you want to be successful in life, you won't just know people like Musk the way everyone else knows them. You will want to dig deeper. I love to know what makes a man who he is. I didn't just want to know Elon Musk has been the CO of SpaceX, Tesla and Boring Company. I wanted to know what makes him who he is and how he fought against every obstacle to arrive where he is. And that was the reason I bought his biography, written by Ashley Vance. I challenge you to read that book. Albert Einstein is not an entrepreneur, but his life encouraged me a whole lot. I have Einstein's 718 page biography in my library. I encourage everyone to read it. For me, the takeaway from his biography is the fact that Einstein was never the genius that everyone calls him. He was an ordinary man with extraordinary focus and determination. Yes, this is not about a human being, but think about it. How can you become a great entrepreneur if you don't have the time to study one of the oldest companies in the world? Coca-Cola is 135 years old this year. That company has gone through thousands of faces with millions of changes. I read the biography of Coca-Cola because I don't know why I shouldn't. It's titled Coca-Cola Way by Mark Pendergrast. This is a 774 page book titled Titan by Ron Chernow. Again, John D. Rockefeller was never an angel. He did a lot of things wrong. Yet, his life is worth studying because he did a lot of courageous, innovative and great stuff too. Well, if you want to be an entrepreneur at all, you would love to know some deep things about one of the craziest entrepreneurs that ever lived. He was a perfectionist, arrogant, rude, but at the same time, he believed in his capacity to change the world. And he did. In conclusion, I believe that you cannot become a successful entrepreneur if you're too lazy to study the lives of those who have built and created a visible legacy in the past. In my personal life, the more I studied the people who have achieved what I want to achieve, the more I think, act and get the results they got. I hope this video helps you and if you like it, kindly share with your friends and don't forget to subscribe if you've not done so. We love you.